California
Owner: North Western Shipping Company (White Star Line)
Ship Details
Details
Vessel Type: Sailing ship
Official No: 697769
Builder: Harland & Wolff Ltd, Queen's Island, Belfast
Yard No: 225
Laid down: -
Launched: 22 February 1890
Handed over: 24 April 1890
Port & Date of Registry: Liverpool, April 1890
Managing Owner & Address: William Imrie, 10 Water Street, Liverpool
Description
Number of Decks: 2
Number of Masts: 4
Rigged: Schooner
Stern: Elliptical
Build: Clencher
Framework & Description of Vessel: Steel
Number of Bulkheads: 1
Number of water ballast tanks: -
Dimensions
Length: 329.3 ft
Breadth: 45.2 ft
Depth: 26.7 ft
Gross Registered Tonnage: 3,099
Machinery
Engine Builder: -
Engine Type: -
Cylinders: -
Stroke: -
Nominal Horse Power: -
Boilers
Description: -
Number: -
Iron or Steel: -
Pressure when loaded: -
Screw: -
Speed: -
Signal Letters: -
NOTES
California was the last wind ship built for the Company and at the time of her entry into service the largest sailing vessel in the world.
Intended for the general trading business between Liverpool and San Francisco via Cape Horn, the four masted clipper was so large that steam powered windlasses, winches and patented winches for working her top sails were required in order to set her canvas.
Fitted out in the Hamilton Graving Dock, she was completed in April and scheduled to leave for Liverpool under tow of the steam tug Blazer but bad weather prevented her departure by one day to the 24th.
One contemporary commentator said of her ‘California, huge, slow as time’ but this was rather unfair for she could keep up with the best clippers in the trade and on occasions set records for the number of nautical miles covered in a single day.
With her sale to German interests in 1896 White Star severed its connection with the era of the commercial sailing vessel. In 1908 the Company realised the value of training their officer cadets under sail and purchased the full-rigged ship Mersey for use as a training vessel.
